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Tuesday, August 5, 2014

By consecration ... another ...

Here is a prayer by the saintly Irish Jesuit priest, Father William
Doyle.

You will recognize straightaway his distinctive blend of manly fervour

and passion for the Most Holy Eucharist.

O my God, pour
out in abundance Thy spirit of sacrifice upon Thy priests.It
is both their glory and their duty to become victims,to be burnt up for
souls,to live without ordinary joys,to be often the objects of distrust,
injustice, and persecution.The words they say every day at the
altar,"This is my Body, this is my Blood,"grant them to apply to
themselves:"I am no longer myself, I am Jesus, Jesus crucified.I am, like the bread and wine, a substance no longer
itself, but by consecration another."O my God, I burn with desire for the
sanctification of Thy priests.I wish all the priestly hands which touch Thee
were hands whose touch is gentle and pleasing to Thee,that all the mouths
uttering such sublime words at the altar should never descend to speaking
trivialities.Let priests in all their person stay at the level
of their lofty functions,let every man find them simple and great, like the
Holy Eucharist,accessible to all yet above the rest of men.O my God,
grant them to carry with them from the Mass of today,a thirst for the Mass
of tomorrow,and grant them, ladened themselves with gifts,to share these
abundantly with their fellow men. Amen.